Rising From The Ruins – Day 10 – The Rubble Within The Walls

The wall is now half way up! With incredible heart from the people, and great leadership from Nehemiah, miraculous progress has been made. The task should have taken much, much longer.

But now they have a problem. The labourers are getting tired. Have you ever noticed how when you are tired everything just seems harder? Well that’s where Nehemiah’s workforce was. They have achieved lots but the task ahead still seemed insurmountable.

On top of that, the past had caught up with them and was causing havoc. When the walls were originally destroyed it caused masses of rubble to accumulate. As the people worked on the walls this pile grew bigger and walking on it and over it had packed lightweight rubble into a sturdy obstacle to the work.

The truth was plain to see; if the people were to make any more progress they had to take on the painful, time-consuming task of removing the rubble from the past.

We can try to follow God’s call, we can work and build, but we cannot ignore the past. The rubble of what has gone before will eventually paralyze any future progress.

So from time to time, God graciously draws our attention to the long forgotten rubble. A memory resurfaces, we bump into someone from the past, or we have a dream that brings back unresolved conflict, bitterness or pain. In those moments it is of the utmost importance that we do not ignore the rubble. We cannot continue with the building work until the rubbish is removed.

Rubble removal can be painful. In those seasons it can seem as if we are making no progress. It takes a lot of time and effort, but it is IMPERATIVE to our future. It simply won’t go away if we ignore it. It will become a bigger obstacle the longer it is left.

Today, allow God access to the rubble of your past and work with him as he seeks to remove it, in order to open up your future.

PRAYER

God, I give you my rubble. Help me do the work of removing it so I can become everything you want me to be. Amen.